


We're All Dead Anyway

by rosesofenvy



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: M/M, Multi, Oneshot, Walking Dead AU, based off of that one episode of walking dead with dr. jenner, ish, kinda angst-y, may or may not be a happy ending, not exactly the same but i tried to follow the path of the episode, not really - Freeform, you kinda sorta decide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-17
Updated: 2014-07-17
Packaged: 2018-02-09 07:35:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1974372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosesofenvy/pseuds/rosesofenvy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They're stuck and the safest place for them is this warehouse that still has electricity, and is...is someone in there?</p>
            </blockquote>





	We're All Dead Anyway

**Author's Note:**

> I started watching The Walking Dead recently (yeah I know I'm behind on the times) and the episode with Dr. Jenner really caught my attention. I'm not even completely sure why, but somewhere in the episode I thought that Dr. Jenner reminded me of Ryan. And then this happened. Sorry for sad, I might make it better.

The setting sun makes their small group of five all the more frantic to get inside the building, it's common knowledge that the walkers prefer the cooler time in the evening, and right now they're too far into the city. Too far to get back to their vehicles before the sun sets.

"This place is abandoned, there's no way anyone's here," Geoff says, staring at the closed warehouse doors with apprehension, walking closer only to inspect them with more detail.

"I think there might be, if someone wasn't here then why are the doors closed? They seem secure too," Jack offers, sending quick glances behind them to make sure they're not being closely pursued by any unwanted foes.

"How can we know for sure?" Geoff counters, tapping a fist against the metal and hearing the resounding echo.

"Well there's at least one way to find out," Michael grumbles, dropping their bag of guns to the ground and walking confidently to the door, slamming his fist against the door as hard as possible, not caring as pain lances through his hand at the action.

"Guys that camera moved!" Gavin yelps, pointing at the device above the door that swivels in response to the shout.

"Hey can you let us in!" Ray yells, watching as that camera now remains still.

"Hey asshole! Let us in!" Michael yells, slamming the flat of his palm on the door once before stepping back a few steps in hopes that it would open. When it doesn't he growls under his breath, now attempting to forcefully open the warehouse door, trying to pry it up from the ground.

"Michael we'll just have to find a different place to hole up for the night," Geoff says, feeling the last rays of sun slipping off of his skin to hide under the horizon. Only a faint illumination indicates that the sun is still there somewhere.

"Fuck that we all know there's not enough time!" Michael barks, kicking the door a few times and glaring at the camera, "We'll die if you leave us out here!"

"Michael don't say stuff like that!" Gavin gasps, running forward and grasping the redheads arm, "Let's just go, we can find somewhere else!"

Ray maintains a steady gaze with the camera, calculating whether or not there was someone controlling it or if it was electronically monitoring everything. Either way the building still had electricity and that meant it probably had supplies.

"Michael c'mon!" Ray yells decisively, turning away from the camera and stalking toward the angry man. With both him and Gavin's combined strength they pulled Michael away from the door, Geoff reaching past them to grab the bag of guns as Jack begins to lead them away. There were already Walkers crawling the streets; dread settles in their stomachs at the thought of trying to get away from them.

Ray sends one last glance back, seeing the camera following their movements. He stops, staring in almost shock as he hears the whir of mechanics, fluorescent light spilling out from underneath the warehouse door as it creaks open. The others turn as he begins walking towards it, hoping that he's not imagining the action.

"Oh my god!" Gavin exclaims, the first to react. He drags Michael behind him, Jack and Geoff following close behind as they join Ray in the large, mostly empty, storage warehouse. The door clangs shut instantly behind them, shocking them all with the sudden noise. They sit there anxiously for a few tense seconds before footsteps echo from between one of the many shelves, and a man remains just out of sight before speaking.

"Are any of you infected?"

Even expecting the voice made them jump, Geoff is the one who responds.

"No, we did have one, but they didn't make it here."

A noise of almost disappointment reaches them before the man comes briefly into view, motioning for them to follow him to a different room.

"Bring any supplies you have with you, that door's not opening again."

Ray frowns at the ominous sounding words, seeing his four companions sport similar expressions of almost doubt. But they all follow the mysterious man nonetheless, down a long and narrow hallway until he gestures them into what seems to be an examination room.

"I'll be doing blood tests on all of you, if you want to stay you won't protest," He states, stopping Geoff before he can exclaim about how stupid it would be. The five of them drop the meager supplies, letting the doctor, because that's obviously what he is, take their blood for whatever reason. None of them speak until Ray, who's the last.

"What's your name anyway? We haven't even introduced ourselves."

"Dr. Ryan Haywood, and you guys are?" Ryan says absently, taping down a bandage over the spot on Ray's arm.

"I'm Geoff, that's Jack, Gavin, Michael, and he's Ray," Geoff points to each one of them in turn, Ryan nodding thoughtfully and taking a pen from his coat pocket to mark something down.

"Why'd you take blood anyways? None of us are infected," Gavin asks curiously, watching as Ryan writes.

The man snorts, "I've broken basically every rule letting you into a government facility, might as well follow one protocol."

Ray stumbles as he stands, frowning at the sudden lightheadedness he gets. Ryan catches his arm, looking at him with concern then turning to the others with a similar look.

"None of us have really eaten in a few days," Jack admits for the rest of them, expressions a bit sheepish as Ryan nods in understanding.

"Lucky for you guys, I have just the thing."

* * *

  
  
"I'M GETTING DRUNK AS SHIT AND YOU GUYS CAN'T STOP ME!" Geoff proclaims after viewing the amount of liquor that Ryan had stored away. Jack and Gavin protest only a bit, reminding the man that he'd given up drinking, but end up drinking a lot themselves. They'd already taken advantage of the hot water showers and fresh clothes, now eating the dinner that Ryan had prepared from the food supplies. It wasn't much in reality, but to them it was a feast of kings.

Ryan sits a bit apart from their group, an almost melancholy look staining his features as he watches four out of the five of them make drunk fools out of themselves, Ray drinking very little and laughing at his friends antics. Ryan nurses his own drink, trying not to get drunk but still wanting to forget about the inevitable failures of the past few days. And months.

"Hey Rye-bread why don't you join us!" Michael slurs, motioning for the man to sit at the table. The redhead is obviously way past drunk at this point, but is about the same level as the others.

"Yeah mister doctor sir, we gotta few questions for you," Gavin giggles, standing to stumble over to Ryan and dragging on his arm until the older man sighs and follows him.

"We'll just go ahead and smash this pleasant mood now," Jack says cheerfully, smile not quite reaching his eyes as Ryan sits down in between Gavin and Ray.

"First question, why are you alone, this is obviously a research place, where's the other doctors working on an antidote for the damn infection thingie," Geoff asks dramatically, holding up a single finger to indicate what question he was asking.

Ryan sobers up almost immediately, staring into his glass with almost disgust and shuddering.

"There used to be alot of us, a whole team of scientists. We were doing research up to the point when others started getting infected and the army began to get overrun, then some ran. To their families, in an attempt to get away, but some of us still stayed, trying to figure it all out." The others are quiet, their drunken highs fading as well as they listen.

"When this place essentially closed down, lets just say many took the easy way out. And then there were so few left they just gave up, and now it's just me. And that isn't going to last much longer."

Ryan lets them think on his explanation for a few seconds before standing abruptly, "I want to show you guys something."

They follow the doctor in confusion, walking into a massive computer room, light powering on automatically as well as a large screen that dominates a majority of the wall at the front of the room.

"Wow," Gavin murmurs in awe, watching as the screen powers on, an image popping up with a recorded time, from a few months ago if he assumed today's date was correct.

The recording begins playing with a command from Ryan, and they all watch raptly as the MRI-like reading moves to the side as it shows the process of the human brain shutting down.

"This is someone dying from the infection, isn't it," Ray asks softly, turning as the doctor stiffens, nodding tersely.

"Yes, they volunteered. Watch what occurs next."

The video fast forwards, slowing down a red signals begin sparking from the base of the person's neck, spreading barely to the edge of the persons brain stem before stopping.

"This shows us that the infection doesn't bring _you_ back, it only brings back basic motor functions, moving, breathing, maybe heartbeat. But it doesn't bring back your memories, your knowledge, it doesn't bring back any of those qualities. It only reawakens your corpse." Ryan says grimly, shutting down the electronics. The others are in shock of this new information.

"Who was it?"

"Huh??"

Geoff turns to Ryan, "Who was the person who volunteered to be bitten?" He asks firmly, sounding determined

Ryan meets Geoff's gaze, "A close friend of mine, he worked with me on many of my projects. He was a genius, almost as smart as the director of this place. And yet..."

They don't know how to respond, each knowing that saying sorry wouldn't help anything. Ryan sighs, shutting off all the lights and making them follow him back to the kitchen area.

"Go to bed, I'm going to try and get more work done," Ryan comments offhandedly as he begins to clean up the cleared plates and dishes. The five of them make sounds of agreement, giving the man a glance before heading back to their assigned rooms. Once he's alone, Ryan sets down the dishes in the sink, rubbing his hands over his face.

His plans are ruined, he'll have to either wait for them to leave, or keep them here with him. Either way his life will end tomorrow.

Ryan's shocked out of his thoughts at the sound of shuffling footsteps. He whirls around, only to see Ray blinking owlishly from the doorway.

"Uh, didn't mean to scare you," Ray offers quickly while Ryan stares at him. The doctor sighs, waving Ray's apology away.

"It's fine, I was lost in my thoughts," He replies absently, staring at the wall. He hears Ray shift, walking further into the room, pulling out a chair and sitting down.

"You've been working on this since the beginning huh?" Ray says, more of a statement than a question. Ryan tries to smile, probably looking more like a grimace.

"Basically, once the news came in."

"And you guys found nothing in that amount of time?"

Ryan shakes his head bitterly, "Of course we found something, but nothing resolute."

"Well what did you find!" Ray exclaims, wondering if the discovery could actually save the human race.

"If I told you you'd take that gun from under your shirt and shoot yourself in the head," Ryan replies calmly, Ray's enthusiasm cut short with a shocked noise. He guiltily takes the gun from where he's hidden it and set it on the table.

"So...it's not a helpful discovery?" Ray asks hesitantly, already guessing the answer.

"If I had more time, more test subjects, more information. It might've been, but in this reality, it'll only dash your hopes of surviving even more."

"That bad huh?" Ray murmurs, refusing to become discouraged. It was just another dead end, they'd hit dead ends before, this one was no different.

"Why do you stay here then? If you know it's hopeless?" Ray questions next, refusing to let an awkward silence envelope them.

Ryan shrugs, "I promised my friend I would try to find a cure, he'd sacrificed himself after all. A stupid move, but I said I'd try no matter what. Even when the power runs out."

"Pretty hard promise to keep," Ray comments, staring intently at Ryan.

"I won't be able to keep it much longer. I did my best but I can't finish my research without confirmation on the discovery." A small lie, he knows that the discovery is true, but he just doesn't want to continue on with the experiment any longer. He fulfilled as much of the promise to his deceased coworker as he could, it's time to stop.

"That sucks, there's no one left to confirm it," Ray tries to sound joking, but it sounds more sad than anything. A harsh truth shoved behind a curtain of false security,

"Basically, I'm at a standstill for now." And always will be.

They sit in silence for a few moments before Ray yawns, standing and stretching, "I guess we'll see you in the morning Dr. Ryan Haywood, goodnight." The younger begins walking away before Ryan's soft voice stops him.

"I'll tell you tomorrow."

"Tell me what?" Ray questions, only to confirm his suspicions on the answer.

"What the discovery was, I'll tell you tomorrow," Ryan replies quickly, keeping his back to Ray and hoping his voice isn't as unsteady as he thinks. Ray frowns at the action from the doctor, but nods, even though he couldn't see it, before walking away.

_I'm telling you tomorrow, because the information will never otherwise leave the building._

* * *

 

The five of them file into the kitchen later in the day, according to the clock on the wall, and he can see Ray smirking as his friends nurse hangovers.

"Damn, why'd we drink so much," Michael grumbles as he picks at the food Ryan had prepared for them. The last of the food.  
  
Gavin points his fork accusingly at Geoff, "He's to blame, telling us all to get shitfaced together."

"Never said you had to agree," Geoff grins despite the headache, similar sentiments being expressed by Jack.

"I'll just be enjoying all this food myself then I assume," Ray jokes as he watches them all pick halfheartedly at their plates. They all protest quickly, but still aren't able to eat much. Ryan could almost laugh at the sight of them bickering, if he wasn't so concentrated on the red clock counting down.

_1:00:01_

_1:00:00_

_00:59:59_

_00:59:58..._

Right on cue a red light flashes overhead, and Ryan listens to the doors lock down. His five companions jump at the sudden sound of slamming metal, staring wide eyed as Ryan walks silently to the center room full of computers, the lights flicking on at his command.

However the lights are dim, and the computers refuse to power on as he sits down at his desk, flicking on the recording. He knows continuing the documentary is pointless since all the data will be destroyed in under an hour, but habit possesses him.

"One generator left, the building has locked down and there's less than an hour before termination. I couldn't finish the research, I'm sorry-" He's able to say before frantic yelling interrupts him.

"Ryan what the hell is going on!" Geoff yells, stalking over to the doctor and grabbing the mans collar.

"Termination will occur in _54 minutes and 35 seconds_ , _34, 33, 32_..." Ryan trails off when Geoff glares at him.

"What the bloody hell does 'termination' mean?" Gavin yelps, walking up behind Geoff.

"The door won't open!" Jack yells from the main door out of the room, him and Michael trying all combinations of buttons and kicking the door (in Michael's case) in attempt to make it open.

 "Ryan open the doors!" Ray says frantically, watching as the lights flicker, the counter on the clock suddenly dropping to less than thirty minutes.

"You won't be able to get out, all the power is being transferred to keep the computers going," Ryan states coldly, ripping himself out of Geoff's grip and walking away from them.

"We have to get out, what do you not understand about that!" Geoff barks, following closely behind the doctor.

"You mean you want to go back into the horror that is the world! Going this way will be so much more painless! You'd rather be subjected to a bite and the horror of being torn to bits when you could much easily be terminated by the force of a nuclear blast! One way is an eternity of torture whereas the other is millisecond of pain!" Ryan yells back, gesturing vaguely towards the doors when talking about the zombies.

"What?" Ray whispers, staring in shock at the older man.

Ryan yells wordlessly in frustration for a few seconds, running a hand through his hair, "In _23 minutes and 12 seconds_ this building will explode with the potential force of a nuclear blast!"

"Why though!" Gavin yells, sounding panicked as he paces back and forth.

Ryan stares at them, almost as if he's in shock by their naivete, "This building contains experiments that should've never been created. Bioware that should and will never go to use because if it's released upon the remaining bits of humanity... this little occurrence will seem like nothing. So in less than _10 minutes,_ we will all die. But it will be ok, a much better way to go than trying to survive out there."

They all give him shocked looks, another flicker dropping the clock by another minute.

"You're insane!" Geoff yells, grabbing the axe from their weapon bag and running at the door, trying to force it open that way. Gavin joins them in their efforts, only staring at the man.

"Tell me then," he whispers.

"Tell you what," Ryan sighs, sounding disappointed that none of them like his idea of escape from this world.

"The discovery, you said you were going to tell me, so tell me."

Ryan's surprised that the younger remembers, "We're all infected."

Ray freezes, "What?" The sound of his friends desperately trying to escape fades behind the sound of his own heartbeat.

"We're all infected, doesn't matter if we're bit or not, being bitten just hurries along the process. When we die, we'll come back. Unless if we shoot ourselves in the head or get incinerated, we'll come back and wreak havoc on other survivors."

"There's no way we can be saved?" Ray asks, still shocked.

"Perhaps, but I'm out of time to find it," Ryan looks past Ray, to the four other men at the door. A conflicted look crosses his features as he watches them try desperately to escape a fate that will be so much more painless than the other offer waiting for them outside. He reaches for the desk, clicking a button and watching as the doors slide open.

"I ask you to reconsider, escape to a much crueler end if you wish it. Three minutes gentlemen, it was an honor to offer you sanctuary, if only for a night," Ryan says as a goodbye, giving a flourished bow.

"C'mon Ray!" Gavin yells, waving at the younger man to follow as the others run ahead. Ray stares at his friend, then turns to Ryan.

"I'm staying," He says quietly, giving Gavin a look. Gavin draws back as if he'd been struck. Ray runs forward to give Gavin a hug, whispering the information he'd just learned before pulling away and walking calmly back to Ryan, hiding the tears that were preventing to spill over.

"Ray..." Gavin flinches as the lights flicker, the clock dropping to a minute. With a teary look he spins away, sprinting after the others.

"Why are you staying? I'm sure you could survive out there," Ryan inquires, voice sounding a little strangled as he watches the clock.

"I kind of wish for a less painful end," Ray replies, reaching out a hand to Ryan, a sad smile gracing his face as they turn to look at the clock.

_00:00:05_

_00:00:04_

_00:00:03_

"Guess I'm kind of glad I'm not dying alone," Ryan replies, grasping Ray's hand in return.

_00:00:02_

_00:00:01_

Ray can almost picture his friends running from the building, Gavin telling them that he's not there, but he doesn't really mind at the moment, a flash taking over his vision as everything fades.


End file.
